The present invention relates in general to aiming systems for guns and in particular to a new and useful barrel adaptor technique or mechanism which is used to bend the barrel of a gun to increase accuracy and/or to aim the gun. The concept is based on a fixed gun, diverting the projectile while it is inside the gun barrel (or immediately after it has emerged). The present invention aims the muzzle of a fixed gun in lieu of the conventional method of aiming of the breach of the gun at the target.
A problem which was recognized many years ago by United States Army, was the fact that a gun is often unable to hit a target it is aiming at. To circumvent this problem, the Army developed high rate of fire weapons that were to be used in a "spray the area" concept. The concept was based on increasing the number of projectiles that reach the target area in the first few seconds, with the expectation that one of the projectiles at least would strike the target. The concept is often referred to as "firepower".
Although the concept increased hit probability at the target, high rate of fire weapons or firing in a burst fire mode still pose adverse aiming problems. In particular, within a burst of fire the second and subsequent rounds in a burst cannot be aimed or controlled by present day aiming systems for guns. Current aiming systems have the capability of aiming the first round in a burst of fire only (as in single shot firing) and thus provide low accuracy and high dispersion at the target.
Attempts have also been made to increase the accuracy of a weapon system which is used for single shot firing with the aid of sophisticated fire control systems and complex weapon stabilization platforms. A major limitation, however, in the system is the inability to hit a target that, due to enemy evasive maneuvering, cannot be aligned in front of a fixed aimed gun. The present invention proposes to satisfy this deficiency by providing pre-programmed flexures that produce pre-determined target impacts relative to the breach aim point for those type target encountered.
Nevertheless, weapons continue to be inaccurate, and this in turn leads to extremely high costs in terms of lives (in a combat situation), time and material.
One factor which contributes to the inaccuracy of the gun is the fact that the gun tube or barrel vibrated and the elastic behavior of the gun mount after a projectile has emerged from the muzzle of the barrel. To date the muzzle excursion of the gun barrel has not been completely defined. Nevertheless it has been recognized that the position of the muzzle at the time when a projectile emerges therefrom, is the principal factor influencing the impact location of the projectile at the target. The projectile dispersion at the target is, therefore, primarily a reflection of the elastic behavior of the gun mount and barrel, taking into account their excitation due to the firing impulse and projectile motion.
Thus the essence of the present invention concept is to force or drive the muzzle of the barrel into the correct spatial position prior to or at the time when a projectile emerges from the muzzle. The corrected muzzle position can be obtained within milliseconds.